>> Mimi Montgomery: I'm so
excited to be here with you all.
And thank you to everyone
for joining us today.
Before we kick off our convo,
I wanted to know if there's
anything you guys want to say
to the audience.
>> Douglas Preston: Well, I'd like
to thank you all for coming.
This is a wonderful audience
and we love our readers
and even those who
aren't our readers,
we love you too,
but not as much.
[Laughter]
>> Lincoln Child: I used to always
get very nervous at these kinds of
events, and I would write out
my introductory remarks and,
you know, people I noticed
would get kind of, you know,
a bad look on their face when
they saw 15, 20 pages of
soiled sheets with
notes all over them.
You know, knowing that I would
take me 15 minutes to finish
before we got started.
So I want you all to be
very comfortable here.
I don't have no
written notes at all.
I put them all in my iPhone now.
[Laughter]
So, I'm going to-- Okay.
"Dear honoured guests."
Oh, that's the end.
Thank you all for being here.
[Applause]
Are we done?
>> Douglas Preston: Oh, yes.
>> Lincoln Child: Yeah.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
That was it.
Thanks for being here. Thanks.
>> Douglas Preston:
I apologize.
Linc didn't get the memo about
how you're supposed to dress.
I mean, it's a lovely shirt, but...
[Laughter]
>> Lincoln Child:
I think it's more than lovely.
Those are fighting words.
>> Mimi Montgomery: That's
a great shirt. It's wonderful.
>> Lincoln Child:
Thank you, thank you, Mimi.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
You're so welcome.
So your latest book,
"Angel of Vengeance" is out.
And if we could just to
kick things off, tell us
a little bit about the book
and how it fits into the larger
Preston Child universe.
>> Douglas Preston: Well,
"Angel of Vengeance" is the third book
in a trilogy that started with
"Bloodless" and
"The Cabinet of Dr. Leng".
Now, how many of you
have read "Bloodless"
and "The Cabinet of Dr. Leng"?
Wow. Well, anyway, we can't
tell you anything about
"Angel of Vengeance".
Everything's a spoiler, but it is the--
I promise you that
this book concludes.
I'm so sorry. We left you
hanging after the last book.
We must have gotten
10,000 angry emails.
My wife was furious at me.
She was reading "The
Cabinet of Doctor Leng"
and she said, I got to-- I thought,
how are they going to wrap this up?
And I got ten pages from the end.
And I realized, those guys
aren't going to wrap this up.
Those sons of guns. Anyway.
>> Lincoln Child: It's even worse than
that because "Bloodless",
the first book in the trilogy,
also ended on a cliffhanger.
So at that point we left you
hanging, and then the second book
in the trilogy "The Cabinet of
Dr. Leng" with another cliffhanger,
which could be considered leaving
you, well hanging, you know.
After two books like that.
>> Douglas Preston:
All right.
>> Lincoln Child:
Oh, it's a tough audience.
[Laughter]
>> Mimi Montgomery: And so a lot of
your characters show up throughout
several different books, and we're
following them through a myriad
of different escapades, and you
get to know them really well if
you've read the books
over and over.
And so I'm curious, how did you
come up with some of your main
characters that show up
in a lot of your books?
>> Douglas Preston:
Well, that's a--
Each character is sort of
appeared in a different way, but
I'll tell you where
Pendergast came from.
And then Lincoln is going to
tell you where Constance Green
came from, because that's his
favorite character.
But Pendergast, you know,
Lincoln and I decided to write
this book set in the
Museum of Natural History.
And so I wrote the
first few chapters.
I sent them to Linc, and he
called me up and he said, Doug,
these are great chapters.
I love them, but you've
got two cops in here.
You've got like an Irish cop
and you've got an Italian cop,
and they're basically
the same character.
And what we need to do is to
fold those two cops together
into one cop.
That'll be degusta.
And then he said, we need to come
up with a detective like no other,
like no other detective
that has ever been written
about. And he went on and on
in that vein, and I became really
irritated. And this is the true
story, I said very sarcastically.
Oh, yeah. Like what we need is
like an albino from New Orleans.
[Laughter]
An albino FBI agent or whatever.
And Lincoln said,
you know, let's work.
Let's work with that.
And we started talking.
And now Pendergast is not albino,
but we decided he'd be very pale.
And then we put
him in a black suit.
And then we said, when he
shows up at the crime scene,
they're going to think he's the
undertaker and he's a fish
out of water. He's from New Orleans,
but he's in New York City.
And let's give him a Rolls Royce
and make him really rich
and an aesthete, sort
of an Oscar Wilde type.
And in 15 minutes he was
standing in front of us,
fully formed, like Athena
from the forehead of Zeus.
All right. True?
>> Lincoln Child:
True, yes.
And we want to apologize to any
New Orleans albino, very pale
people or anybody else who was
offended by this narrative.
Um, but the funny thing about
Pendergast is it took us five
years to write the first book,
"Relic", because we never thought
anybody would publish it.
I've been in publishing myself
at Saint Martin's Press as an
editor for about eight years,
and I had seen thousands of
manuscripts crossed my desk.
And I know how hard it is for
even a well-written, deeply
thought and, you know,
carefully composed manuscript to
ever get past the agent,
the editor and publisher.
So I didn't really have
a lot of hope for us.
I knew we'd get it read
by an agent, but that's it.
So we basically and he had his own--
He thought he was going to be
the next John McPhee living out
in Arizona writing, you know,
non-fiction books.
So, I had to keep pushing Doug
to work on this monster,
brain eating monster
book in New York City.
But in any case, we really
had a self-indulgent time of it.
We made Pendergast the most
extreme, and we thought funny
and strange FBI agent
you could possibly imagine.
And we gave them some
of our best lines.
We gave them some of the best
lines of various 19th century
wits that we'd come across.
And by the time we were done,
we found out that he had become
a serious character for us.
You know, it took us about
eight books or maybe six books,
to find out that he was going
to be dragging us around by the
neck for the rest of our lives,
and we were going to be happy
about it. But when we published a book
called "The Cabinet of Curiosities",
we started to get,
you know, we started to
hear drums, you know, and
whispers that you've got
something here. And that
was a real groundswell.
And after that, Pendergast just
struck a chord with readers.
And he's unlike any other of
the many cookies cutter or non
cookie cutter, uh, FBI
agents slash, you know,
investigators you read about.
And so we've run with
them and we've had fun and
we haven't looked back since.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
And tell us a little bit
about Constance Green too,
because she's such a great character.
>> Lincoln Child: Okay.
[Laughing]
I'm not going to-- I won't
get into the weeds on this
because I don't want to give
anything away or make your eyes
glaze over.
But in the book I mentioned in
"The Cabinet of Curiosities", there's
a character named Enoch Lang,
who was alive in the late
19th century and whose entire
existence was distilled into one
need to create an arcanum
to extend his life.
And he did not want to extend
his life just to live a longer
period of time.
He had to develop this
terrible device potion.
I'm not going to say what it
was, and he knew it would take
him more than 100 years to do it.
So it turns out that Enoch Lang
is Pendergast's ancestor, and
Pendergast now lives in his house,
but in "Cabinet of Curiosities",
there were a series of
murders that began to
take place that were exactly
reminiscent of the murders that
Enoch Lang committed in the
late 19th century, with the goal
of extending his life.
And so the question became in
this book, is this some copycat
crazy, or did Enoch Leng succeed,
and he's still out there killing.
Um, and that's the short version.
You should count yourself lucky.
Constance was one of his
subjects, and she ended up
living with him because
well, I won't spoil that, but
there was a reason for it.
And she stayed young because
she took as a guinea pig,
the Arcanum. And she lived
in that house for 100 years.
And until Leng, something
happened to him, and she stopped
taking the Arcanum.
And, uh, when Pendergast
inherited the house, he
inherited Constance, too, who
turned out to be the world's
biggest, most beautiful badass
you've ever seen.
Um, at least in my opinion.
And, uh...
So, you know, she's
stopped taking this drug.
So she's aging normally now,
but she has this writhing
poisonous hatred for laying in
what he did to her and her
family. And so it's warped her.
She's kind of crazy, you know?
She's not afraid to do
anything, um, to get a revenge
or to protect those she loves.
And over the course of writing
these last ten books, I have
developed a raging crush on her
which is the reason she's
front and center
these last four books.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
She's an awesome character.
>> Lincoln Child:
Thank you very much.
>> Mimi Montgomery: And to that
point, I feel like there are so many
connecting ties and recurring
characters in all of your books
that I'm curious how
you keep it all straight.
Do you have some sort of like,
wall somewhere with like,
red string going across?
That's what I'm
envisioning in my mind.
>> Douglas Preston:
Well, we don't keep it straight.
We make mistakes.
And then we hear from our readers.
What's the matter with you?
Didn't you-- We have to
go back and read our books.
And then we have fans who have
kept track of this much better
than we have. And so sometimes
we have to consult them and say,
let's see now, does Pendergast hate
opera music or love opera music?
Oh, he definitely hates opera.
Okay, good. That's good to know.
>> Lincoln Child: The problem is
that, you know, in about 50 years in
Harvard somewhere, there's
going to be the Lincoln Child
Douglas Preston Memorial
Library collection, which
historians will be, of course,
flocking to the study, you know,
and the development
of the characters.
But we can't take advantage
of their research yet.
So we just have to
rely on our memory.
And a lot of fans out there who
have been so obsessed that they
have created, you can find it
on the web, as this Pendergast
family tree that goes back
about six generations.
And it's beautifully done.
It's done like a real
historian would do.
And we reference that often
and we can't remember who's
related to who.
But one reason that we ended
this book the way we did was to
tie off a lot of those loose
ends, because over the course of
these books, you know, it's
like a lot of them, we're
dragging all these impedimenta
behind us, and now we can have
Pendergast more or less
free of some of this.
What we found interesting but
still complicated material.
So now each book can be a
standalone mystery involving
Pendergast and his dear
Augusta, his cohort or
Constance or whoever.
Um, and so, to answer the
question we've already been
getting frequently.
Does this mean the
end of Pendergast?
Now that you've finished this
whole series of this trilogy and
no, you know, we're going to
keep writing Pendergast until
either we die or somebody takes
the pen away out of our hands.
>> Mimi Montgomery: And Doug,
you brought up, I think your fans
had told you that Pendergast
doesn't like opera.
Have there been any other
sort of like, you know,
conversations you've had with
the fandom where, you know,
you've gotten feedback about
something or, you know, they
sort of introduced some ideas
for Pendergast or like an
interaction that's inspired some
of the happenings in your books.
>> Douglas Preston: Well, we have you
know, we do have fans who express their
decided opinions, and I'm sure
there are many of them are right
out here, especially regarding
whether Constance is ever going
to sleep with Pendergast.
Now, how many people think she should?
How many people think she shouldn't?
All right.
>> Lincoln Child: Right on.
>> Douglas Preston: All right.
Anyway, maybe that's improper.
But anyway. So.
So, yes, we have a lot of fans
who express opinions about our
our characters.
When are you going to
kill off that Smithback?
He's so damned annoying.
We get so many emails about
killing off Smithback.
So we did that and we said,
you know, we want to make sure
that the readers know
that he's really dead.
He's not going to
come back to life.
So, we showed his autopsy
and had his brain sitting in a
Tupperware container.
So you know that he's dead.
And then we got 10,000 emails.
How could you have
killed off Smithback?
You're so terrible. Anyway,
so you can't please everybody.
>> Lincoln Child: But the one thing
that we're guaranteed to hear about
from our readers is, I've read--
Here's a typical email.
I've read your book since 1923,
and I've enjoyed all of them.
And, you know, they were
fantastically written.
And I'll skip to the, you know,
and but I'm not going to
read them anymore because
you killed a German shepherd
in this book. How dare you?
Or you let a horse fall
off a cliff in that book.
How dare you?
You know, kill this poor animal
and you know.
>> Douglas Preston: Meanwhile,
30 people had their brains eaten
in the book. Weren't
worried about that.
They just were
worried about the dog.
>> Lincoln Child: 60 bad guys have
been shot or whatever, but that didn't
matter. So, we tried
our hardest to make it--
If an animal had to
die, it was necessary.
Like in a recent book, we had a
dog running off with a critical
piece of evidence and
we never see him again.
And so, the sheriff shoots him
and it's his own dog.
And we thought, how much more,
you know, heart wrenching
can you be in that?
And we got more flack
on that than anything.
He shoots his own dog?
My God.
>> Douglas Preston:
That was Linc's idea.
>> Lincoln Child:
No, it was your idea.
>> Douglas Preston: You should
know that. And I said,
we're going to get a
lot of emails about this.
And Linc said, yeah, let them come.
Bring them on.
>> Lincoln Child: No when we
were discussing how to start the
last book, I said to Doug, what
should we do early on in this book?
And he said, well, we haven't
killed any dogs in a while.
What have we done?
>> Douglas Preston:
He's just lying. He's lying.
>> Lincoln Child: So
I think we're going to
put in future books
in the copyright page,
'No animals were harmed
in the writing of this book.'
>> Douglas Preston: Well, we did--
I will talk about Margo Green.
At one point Linc wanted to--
>> Lincoln Child: 
Tell them who she is.
>> Douglas Preston: Margo Green
was a character in Relic
and she was also in the movie. So
Linc suggested that maybe we off her.
>> Lincoln Child: No, I didn't.
>> Douglas Preston:
Yes, you did.
>> Lincoln Child:
It was you who did that.
>> Douglas Preston:
No, no, no, you did.
It was your idea.
And I said maybe we better,
like, do a little research
before we do that. So, there was
this bulletin board of our fans,
our readers that where
they would post opinions.
So, I went on the bulletin board
anonymously lurking, and I wrote,
hey, I heard a rumor
that the that the guys, Preston
and Child are going to kill
Margo Green in the next book.
What do you all think about
that? It was like a thousand
responses. If they do that,
I'm never reading another book.
I can't stand how they kill.
Fine. They went on and on and on.
So, I showed that to Linc, and
I said, we better not do that.
We better not play
God with Margo Green.
So, we didn't.
>> Lincoln Child:
That's a lie.
But I'll I'll let it rest.
>> Mimi Montgomery: You know, on the
topic of death, you have some really
creative of gruesomeness
in your stories that I was
impressed by. So, I want to
know, are you guys just like
constantly on Wikipedia,
like typing, you know, weirdest
ways to die or something?
Do you have, like,
a Google doc going?
>> Douglas Preston:
That's Linc again.
He looks so normal.
I mean, he seems so nice.
He's wearing a nice shirt, but--
>> Lincoln Child:
It is nice shirt, isn't it.
>> Douglas Preston: Is
it really twisted mind.
And this is true.
Deny it. I dare you to deny it.
When it comes time to writing
the chapter from the
serial killer's point of view,
Linc writes those chapters
because he understands
how people like that think.
>> Lincoln Child: It's true. Just 
like Thomas Harris understood how
Hannibal Lecter work. I have the
genius to understand how many
different kinds of people work.
So yes when Doug needs to have
the interesting chapters
written, he always turns to me.
And when the integumentary
material has to be done,
the opening, the closing, I give it
to Doug, you know?
And that's how we work together.
>> Mimi Montgomery: So, what you're
saying is, I'm not safe sitting up here
next to you.
[Laughter]
>> Lincoln Child:
Well, here's an honest story.
Doug was writing the end of
the book I mentioned earlier,
"Cabinet of Curiosities", in
which the bad guy is finally
getting his.
And he's been in a room
full of poisons without knowing
it and handled them
all and drunk a few.
And so now he has ten different
poisons coursing through his
veins. And so Doug wrote the
first draft and he had like,
you know, his throat was closing 
up and he was getting a rash,
you know, and
then I added, I added--
He said he had a weeping sores
and things like this and I--
>> Douglas Preston: And he added
buboes and you know chancres--
>> Lincoln Child: It was so gross 
that when I stopped laughing,
I had to add my own stuff to it.
Just I knew our editor
wouldn't let it through.
But, you know, we had to have
our fun, you know, passing it
back and forth.
And the editor let it stay.
So, you know.
[Laughter]
>> Douglas Preston:
It's funny because when "Relic"--
How many of you saw the movie?
Yeah. Anyway, so do you
remember that scene where
they're in the men's room at
the Museum of Natural History,
and there's a brain lying on
the floor underneath the urinal?
Well, I remember writing that
scene, that chapter and
thinking, this is so gross.
This is really, just this
wonderfully gross and gruesome
and writing this chapter and
really kind of laughing
at how gruesome it was.
And then we were--
I was invited to the premiere
of the movie where they showed--
The film was shown to the studio.
Right. So sitting next to the
director, Peter Hyams, and
all of a sudden that scene comes
up made into real life visual.
And here is this brain that
looked like it was made out of
plastic, lying on the floor of
the bathroom, covered in
ketchup. It was so fake looking
and I started to laugh
hysterically. I thought,
this is awful.
Who wrote this? Oh
wait, I wrote that.
[Laughter]
And the director 
looked at me like.
And I was like, oh, I'm sorry.
Sorry. It's just a
frog in my throat there.
>> Lincoln Child:
He was the one who said that.
Okay. Remember that?
But there have been times that
we have had to censor each other.
There are a few times in the
most recent book where Doug
took out paragraphs of mine
saying, this is just too grotesque.
You know, it's too awful.
We can't subject
our readers to this.
And I have to do the same.
When he tries to write a
sex scene, I say, this is too
grotesque. It's too awful.
We can't subject
our readers to this.
>> Douglas Preston: Actually,
that isn't what he said.
He said, Doug, I read your
sex scene and all I can say is
I feel really sorry for your wife.
[Laughter]
I mean, I've never
forgotten that, but.
And then he rewrote it, and I
had to feel sorry for his wife.
[Laughter]
>> Lincoln Child: You took
notes as what you did.
[Laughter]
Better to go back to Mimi.
>> Douglas Preston:
Sorry, sorry.
We're getting a little
out of control here.
You got to tone us down.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
I'm gonna rain you guys’ in.
And so, you know, I'm curious
how you two met and how
you teamed up. And to that point,
how does writing a book
with each other work? What
does that process look like?
>> Douglas Preston: Well, I'll talk
about how we met, and then Linc
will talk about how we write a book
together because Lincoln was the
editor for my first
non-fiction book.
I thought of myself as a
very serious journalist,
and I wrote a book.
>> Lincoln Child: Sorry.
[Laughter]
And I wrote a book called
"Dinosaurs in the Attic, "
which was a non-fiction book about
the Museum of Natural History
where I worked. And I gave Linc
a tour at night of the museum,
and all the lights had been
turned out and just the
emergency lights were on, and
I thought it'd be really cool to
show him the museum at midnight.
And we did this tour, and we
ended up like at 2:00 in the
morning in the Hall of
Dinosaurs, late dinosaurs.
And Lincoln turned to me
and said, My God, this is the
scariest damn building
in the world.
We have got to write a thriller
set in this building.
And I said, Lincoln, I don't
know how to write a thriller.
And Linc said, well, I do,
because I've read so many bad
manuscripts that I know
exactly what not to do.
And he said. He doesn't like it
when I tell this story.
And he said, I'm editing a book
that I'm learning a lot from.
It's called "The
Silence of the Lambs."
And, you know, it's really
a wonderful thriller.
I think I'm learning a great
deal about how to write a
thriller from this book, which I
think is going to be a bestseller.
Anyway. So that's
how we got together.
I'm going to cap that story
with one little thing here.
>> Lincoln Child:
Oh, God.
[Laughter]
>> Douglas Preston: As we
were talking about this novel,
we were going to
write in the museum,
a voice rang out.
And here in the doorway of the
dinosaur hall is a guard, and
he's got a flashlight,
and he's he's terrified.
He said, who's there?
Who's that? Who are those voices?
What are you doing there?
What are you doing in the museum?
And shining the light like this.
And I thought, oh, my God,
I'm in trouble now because I'm
an employee of the museum.
I wasn't supposed to be there,
but Lincoln said, Doug, let me
handle this. He said,
Thank God, you found us.
Thank God. We've been wandering
around this place forever.
And the guide said, what?
It's 2:00 in the morning.
The museum closed at five.
Don't we know it?
Oh my God. How do you find
your way out of this place?
[Laughter]
The guide was completely fooled.
He took us out through
the guards entrance.
The only way to get out.
Never asked for our IDs.
And at that point, I thought,
you know, this guy's going to
make a really good partner.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
>> Lincoln Child:
Thank you.
Thank you, Doug, and I have
without, you know, any modesty.
He has left me the boring
part of the question to answer.
So I'll try and keep this short,
which is how we write
together. Actually, it's not
boring because I think a lot of
people can't understand how two
could write a novel together,
as opposed to a work of history
or something, and publisher felt
the same way when we were first
trying to get published.
And in fact, our first dozen
books in England came out under
Lincoln Preston, you know,
because they thought no one
would buy a novel
written by two people.
What are they going to do?
Do chapter one by him?
Two by this guy, three by him,
you know, and we realized
immediately that wouldn't work
out because Doug might want to
kill off this guy named
Hamlet in chapter three.
And I had this idea for a great
scene in the graveyard in
chapter 20. You know, so what
we decided to do was to plot the
book out, and then each write a
segment of the book that was
self contained, whether it was
a sequence of chapters or one
character, or the climax of the
book, or, you know, a subplot,
and then the other
would rewrite that.
And we quickly learned to turn
off, document, compare, because
that was, you know, that would have
killed our partnership in book four.
And Doug will rewrite my
prose, which makes me mad
because it's already deathless
and doesn't need any changes.
And I take a Roto-Rooter to
his, and I do my best to plaster
over, you know, the
egregious, you know.
Well, that's
behind the scenes stuff.
You don't need to hear about
that. And but at the end of
the day, the point is we've put
all four hands on almost
every word in the in the book.
And that's one reason why
it seems very seamless.
Most people don't know when
one person writes a chapter, when
somebody else picks it up.
And that's because we've
both written everything and
we've all talked about it and
argued about it and fought about
what should happen earlier on.
We don't plan until
the end of the book.
That wouldn't give us room to
be organic, but we plotted it
enough so that we know
where we're going.
And we can say, Doug, you take
these three chapters, you know,
Linc, you take these ten chapters
and, you know, go from there.
But in all honesty, when he
started out, Doug wrote the
lion's share of the chapters.
I, being an editor and having
a most fecund creative
imagination, gave Doug the
ideas for the chapters, and he
then wrote them, and then
I would rewrite them.
But now he didn't like doing
all the writing, you know?
So eventually he realized
what was happening.
And now he's very careful
to make sure we each--
You know, he has an Excel
spreadsheet with a number of
words we've each written.
And, you know, now we write
the books, I think 50-50,
although we each tend to
champion a book, you know,
one of us keeps the
other one going on it.
And, but beyond that,
we're both involved 100%.
I hope that explains how we work.
>> Mimi Montgomery: And so you've
been doing this for 30 years.
How long?
>> Lincoln Child:
Why did you wait? Since 1986.
>> Douglas Preston:
Yeah. 1986. Yeah.
>> That was 40 then.
>> Yeah.
>> Mimi Montgomery: So you two must
have a pretty good understanding of
the other person's
psyche and mind, right?
>> Douglas Preston:
Oh, it's been awful.
[Laughter]
>> Lincoln Child: We fight like an
old married couple sometimes, you know?
>> Douglas Preston: I know.
It's just terrible
nagging and, you know.
>> Lincoln Child:
And the sex is awful.
[Laughter]
>> Mimi Montgomery: This is actually
an on stage couples counseling session.
To say, you know.
>> Lincoln Child: Yeah. Doug, I've
been meaning to tell you something.
>> Douglas Preston:
Don't touch me.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
Oh, this is special.
>> Lincoln Child: That's special.
It's a good way to put it.
>> Mimi Montgomery: And I'm curious.
So, when you all were starting out,
and even now, are there any authors
or writers who have really inspired
you or who you really think are
doing cool things that sort of,
you know, inspire some of the
writing that you're doing today?
>> Lincoln Child: Um, yeah.
I'll start. And then Doug.
>> Douglas Preston: Do
you want to take this one?
>> Lincoln Child:
Yeah. First, if you don't mind.
>> Douglas Preston: Please, Please.
After you, my dear Alphonse.
>> Lincoln Child: Okay. Well, after
he maligned me about Thomas Harris,
you know, I should say
Thomas Harris is definitely an
influence. And he's
brilliant at writing.
Not just, you know, some mass
murderer’s perspectives, but he
knows just when to end
a chapter, you know.
And I learned from him, and
I learned from a lot of film
directors that you have to
keep chapters short, bite sized
pieces, and always try and end
at a place where the person has
to read the next page.
Because when we get emails
saying, damn it, you know,
I read your book till 4:00 in the
morning, and then I had to go to
work, and now I can't see
because I had to finish your
stupid book. We know we've
done our job properly then.
But Michael Crichton was a fan.
I mean, a fan.
Um, he was a big influence on
us because our books were
originally techno thrillers,
and he was probably one of the
first people since, like H.G. Wells
in that period to really meld science
with a thriller. And as Doug would
agree, we both are fans of
19th century authors
like Wilkie Collins, Poe.
I read Lovecraft.
He's a bit newer.
He warped me at age eight,
and I haven't recovered since.
>> Douglas Preston: Yeah. Dickens.
You know, Conan Doyle, these are--
There's a, you know, there's a
lot of 19th century phraseology
in our books that because both
of us were useless English
majors in college, and our
parents were terrified that they
were going to have to support
us for the rest of our lives.
But we did read a lot of books,
and thank God we did.
Because, you know, I mean, Linc must
have read at least 5 or 10 books.
>> Lincoln Child: Oh, no.
It's 11. Yeah, I just
finished one last night.
>> Mimi Montgomery: And do you do
a lot of research for your books?
Because, you know, a lot of
them-- Some of them have a
historical basis or take place
in really unusual locations.
How much research do you do?
>> Douglas Preston: Well, we
do a tremendous amount of research.
And like, for example,
"Angel of Vengeance"
takes place in
New York City in 1880.
And the amount of research
that went into that was
extraordinary. We had maps
of New York City of 1880.
We had, you know, went through
huge archives of photographs of
what life was like in
1880 and thereabouts.
We read all about the Five Points
House of industry, which
really existed, you know,
sort of an orphanage for,
for children run by the Methodist
church, kind of a grim place.
So a huge amount of
research went into it.
Linc did a lot of
that research, actually.
He's really good at
the historical research.
As far as science goes, I have
a background in physics and
mathematics and astronomy and
so a lot of those sorts,
that kind of science I'm in
charge of, engineering as well.
So yeah, we kind of divide it up,
but we do a lot of research.
>> Lincoln Child:
Doug is a polymath.
He knows a bit about
everything, so I can always rely
on him to fill in something of
some historical detail or some
scientific detail.
But we do a lot of historical
research or scientific research
when it's necessary.
But I know being an editor and
a writer, as I'm sure everybody
in this room knows, there
is such a thing as a good
historical novel.
And the historical novel where
the author took five years to
research and they're going to
shove every bit of that research
down your throat during
the course of the book.
And I was doing the-- I did the
first 12 chapters of the prior
Pendergast book, "Cabinet of
Dr. Leng", sight unseen by
Doug as an experiment.
And there's a scene
where Constance Green goes into
Tiffany to sell these jewels,
and I did so much
research, I found out what
corner office they had in the
1880s, so the light would come
in so he could look at the
jewel, you know, and, and Doug
read the chapters and he called
me back. He was almost in tears.
These are so good.
Oh, my God.
>> Douglas Preston:
It's true, it's true.
They were awesome chapters.
>> Lincoln Child: But I don't say
that to feather my own nest.
But, you know, we have a
sense from all the books
we've read and written of, you know,
a little bit goes a long way
when you're doing
historical research.
Especially if you put it in a
passing reference to something
that nobody knows about.
But it is well known back then, you
know, and it just seems very realistic.
>> Mimi Montgomery: And so if you can
tell us what you're working on now
and what we might 
expect. No pressure.
>> Douglas Preston: Well, we just
submitted a manuscript to our publisher
called Badlands.
We have not heard back except
that she said she loved it, but
we haven't gotten the
dreaded editorial letter yet,
which tells you
what's wrong with it.
But it's it's a Nora
Kelly Corey Swanson novel.
Takes place in New Mexico, and it
involves a mysterious rash of suicides
where women walk out into the
badlands of New Mexico and
deliberately die from
heatstroke and thirst and
dehydration. And so that's sort
of the premise. I can't, again,
no spoilers, but
that's how it begins.
And that'll be published
in June of next year.
>> Lincoln Child: And we're also
working on the next Pendergast book,
because we have to do two books
a year or a book every, you know,
8 or 10 months. And we're happy
to tell you, and we're thankful to
tell you that the newest one,
"Angel of Vengeance", will premiere
a week from Sunday on the New York
bestseller list at number three.
Well, thank you, thank
you, thank all of you.
[Applause]
It'll immediately get, you know,
by the inrush of
new books. But we're very humbled,
you know, because if it
wasn't for our readers,
we would be digging ditches
or maybe grading papers.
God, I mean, I don't know.
>> Douglas Preston:
Grading roads or grading papers.
>> Lincoln Child:
Grading roads or grading papers.
Yes, that's a good line.
I'll have to remember that.
Um, but it's really true.
You know, um, during Covid, we
were really unhappy because we
couldn't have book
signings anymore.
And that's really how we
connect with our audience.
You know, writing
is a very lonely job.
Doug and I have both
written solo novels.
He's written solo nonfiction books.
And when you're by yourself,
there's nobody but you
and the word processor for company.
And there's also that nagging
fear that you're zigging when
you should be zagging, and
you won't find out for another
20 chapters that you went the
wrong way, but with a writing
partner that you respect and trust.
>> Douglas Preston:
Thank you.
>> Lincoln Child: Yeah, yeah, I do
trust him as far as I can throw him.
And you know, and we can be
together and talk about what
fine fellows we are and get a
little work done here and there.
We can talk if we get caught up
or, you know, if, if we're,
we're at some kind of a
dead end, you know, or if we get
writer's block, which doesn't
really happen so much as we get
difficult problems, you know,
logistical issues.
And so, we've learned that
it's nice to have someone to
write with. Um, so anyway.
[Laughing]
What was the question?
[Laughing]
>> Mimi Montgomery: I'll ask you one
more question, then we'll open it up
to the audience. Um, so if we have any
novices here in the room, where
would you recommend they start?
You have so many books.
What's the first one
they should pick up?
>> Douglas Preston: Well, I think that
the first book, "Relic" is a good book
to start with. Or the
"Cabinet of Curiosities."
Those are the two that I think
are worth starting with.
A lot of those early novels,
except for "Relic", which had a
sequel called Reliquary, were
all standalone books, so you can
kind of start. You could also
read Still Life with crows,
but how many of you here was--
Was Cabinet of Curiosities your
favorite book? As we hear
from a lot of people.
You like that book. All right.
Cabinet. Start with Cabinet.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
Well, like I said,
we'd love to open this
up to the audience.
So, there's a microphone up here
if you want to come up and
ask questions. And we'll do that
for the next 15 minutes or so.
Oh, there's two.
Never mind. I'm sorry.
>> Hi. Big fan.
Um, since you already asked the
question about your process,
I was wondering,
"Cabin of Curiosities",
so I did have the flu,
and I had a fever, and I was
medicated, but that book
scared the crap out of me.
Really creepy.
To this day, I still just--
Anytime it's mentioned,
I'm like, oh my god.
So, I'm wondering if you have
a favorite of your books or
a least favorite that you
just had to write because
the publisher was
like, we need a book.
>> Douglas Preston: Well, you know,
books are like our children,
so it's a little bit hard
to, like, choose favorites.
But I have to say that I think
the "Cabinet of Curiosities" is
one of my favorites.
"Still Life With Crows,
a couple of the Nora Kelly books
I think were pretty good,
like "Diablo Mesa", and
which was the worst one?
That's an even more
interesting question.
What do you think? What's the
book you shouldn't read of ours?
>> Lincoln Child:
Don't say that.
My favorites are usually
the newest one.
I mean, I really like "Angel of
Vengeance" because we put so much
work and effort into
finishing up the trilogy.
But I also like "Blue Labyrinth"
because it has so many unusual
settings, and it seems--
We'd heard at the time that
Pendergast well,
he's like a superman.
Nothing ever happens to him.
You know, this is getting boring.
So we made sure he really
got his rear kicked in that
book, you know. And Constance
really got up to speed on that.
So as far as the work goes,
just want to quickly say
we never crank a book
out as to get it out in time
because we just
can't work that way.
You know, we love every book
as we're working on it.
And sometimes in retrospect, we
see maybe we could have done it
differently. And if I had
to name one candidate,
it would probably be
"Wheel of Darkness."
>> Yeah.
>> "Wheel of Darkness."
>> Douglas Preston: Yeah,
don't start with that book.
[Laughter]
>> Hi. First of all, I
want to say thank you.
You do listen to your readers.
Myself and a friend wrote an
email to you a few years back
about how a man assumed credit
for Cory and Nora's work at the
end of your book. You replied.
You agreed. And we did note the
subplot in the next book where
you fixed that.
So thank you very much.
And my question is, are there
any developments in your
characters that have surprised
you as readers?
And my friend Mary would also
like to know if you have any
characters you regret writing.
>> Douglas Preston: You know,
our characters always surprise us.
I mean, as we're writing them,
they all seem to take on
their force, the force of personality
of our characters pushes us in
certain directions that
we weren't expecting.
So when we outline our books,
we never try to write too
detailed an outline, because
then it's like marionettes,
you know? So often, like, one
character who never does what
she's supposed to do is Constance.
I mean, she is crazy, and
she does stuff that just goes--
She goes off the wall and pulls
the book in a crazy direction.
And, you know, if we ignore
her, that's to our peril
because, you know,
she is not to be ignored.
So she's definitely the most
unpredictable, wild character
in our books. I mean, would you--
>> Lincoln Child: I know
where she's going,
but we just don't tell
Doug where she's going.
>> Douglas Preston: Yeah. But
Pendergast is also quite unpredictable.
You know, we'll say, oh, here's
what Pendergast is going to do.
We'll have him all outlined,
five chapters ahead.
And Pendergast is like, hell
no, that isn't what he says.
He says, absolutely not.
No, I'm going off that way, and
then we're chasing after him.
>> Lincoln Child: Thank you.
>> Hi.
I'm a big fan as well.
I've been reading your
books most of my life.
They're good friends to me.
I'm wondering what draws
you to particular locations or
landscapes? I'm a New Mexico
native, so I'm excited to read
your next book. I wonder what
maybe drew you to New Mexico as
the backdrop for some
of your locations?
>> Douglas Preston: Well, we like to
write about areas that we know
really well, and since
I live in New Mexico,
in Santa Fe, we're 
familiar with it.
And so that's, you know, we
used to live in New York City
for many years. So
we're familiar with that.
The Florida, the chapters, the
books that are set in Florida.
It's because Linc lives in
Florida. He did used to live in
New Jersey. We have not set a
book in New Jersey, and we do not
intend to set a
book in New Jersey.
Sorry, Linc, but it's really
based on what we know and
we visit or one of us at least
visits every locality we can so
that we aren't writing
out of ignorance.
>> Well, thank you for keeping
New Mexico on the map.
>> Douglas Preston:
Thank you. Thank you.
>> Hello. I'll try to ask this
with giving as few spoilers as I can,
but the end of "Bloodless" kind
of expands the possibilities of
what you guys have created
and kind of goes in a different
route that maybe some of
your earlier books didn't.
And I was curious if that is
something you did just to tell
this story, or if you're going
to write more books in this
kind of vein of type of story.
>> Lincoln Child:
Are you talking about
a certain machine or
a certain creature?
>> Yes.
>> Lincoln Child:
The machine, um, plays--
Its only role in the two books
that follow, and Constance
makes sure it won't play
any more role after that.
So, I hope that answers
your question.
>> It does, thank you.
>> Lincoln Child: You know, we don't
write science fiction, but we do
often write a lot of science
and true science as a
concrete base for our books.
So, we can then build, you know,
a fabrication on top.
So, when we have a brain eating
monster, you know, who's morphed
because of the plants
that he chewed on.
You know, your disbelief
has been suspended because we
started out with all those, you
know, equations and things like
that were true.
So it's not science fiction,
but there is, you know, there is
a lot of physics behind it.
>> Thank you.
>> Hi. I almost
forgot my question.
In one of your earlier books,
Pendergast is married, and
he and his wife are on safari,
and his wife gets killed.
And then, several books later,
I found out why she was
killed. But my question to you is,
does Pendergast ever get remarried?
And if so, why?
>> Douglas Preston: No,
Pendergast never gets remarried.
>> Oh. Okay.
>> Douglas Preston: Well, we don't
know what might happen in the future,
but he certainly has not remarried
now and has no intention of
remarrying whatsoever.
He is not going to entangle
himself up like that again.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Lincoln Child: The people have asked
various questions about certain people
that he might be interested in,
but a certain person--
But we close the door on that
figuratively and literally in
"Angel of Vengeance" so that--
>> Douglas Preston: Maybe.
>> Lincoln Child:
Maybe, maybe.
[Laughter]
>> Mimi Montgomery:
No spoilers.
>> If "Relic" were remained today
as a movie, who would each of you
like to see cast as
Margo and Pendergast?
>> Lincoln Child: Let me answer
the Pendergast part, if I may.
This is a question we've
been asked many times for
obvious reasons, because,
you know, people want to see
a remake of the movie.
Or what we would like to
see and what we hope is
happening is Paramount is
going to be making a new--
>> Douglas Preston: They're
making a television series.
They're actually making
a television series now.
>> Lincoln Child:
Based on "Cabinet of Curiosities."
But to answer your question,
the answer has aged
with the books.
So it used to be Christopher
Walken or, you know, and then
it was Benedict Cumberbatch
and then Matthew McConaughey.
And now we've more or less
decided that it should be an unknown.
You know, nobody else could
really do a, could really
fit the bill because
he's so unique.
And you know, he was in the
first draft of the movie,
the script. And he ended up on the
cutting room floor because
nobody could write him.
And I think you really need
a new brilliant face.
Well, an actor to play him.
As for Margot...
>> Douglas Preston: I
don't know. You know,
I have such a clear picture of her
in my head that
it's so clear that I--
That no actress that I know
resembles her or could play her.
So, you know, I can't really.
Again, maybe an unknown person.
>> Lincoln Child: If
there's a casting call,
well, you know,
let us let you know.
[Laughter]
>> Okay. So "Relic" was one of
the first books I snuck out of the
adult section of the library.
So thank you guys so
much for the education.
[Laughter]
So, two part. One, has any
have either of you had a
Pendergast style suit ever tailored
with all the little hidden pockets?
But also, you know, technology
features so big in all your
novels. And of course,
they've progressed over time.
Has it been harder to write
because of the technology that
that has changed over time,
or is it becoming easier
in terms of
developing your plot?
>> Douglas Preston: Well, that's a
really interesting question, because
the appearance of the cell
phone has made everything so
difficult to write these books
because, you know, anyone is a
cell phone call away.
Everyone's carrying a cell phone.
There's coverage everywhere.
So many plots of books,
thrillers are based on someone
being trapped, being
unable to communicate.
And so all of a sudden
technology kind of ruins that.
To solve that problem,
our next Pendergast novel
takes place before "Relic".
It's the case immediately
preceding "Relic", and it takes
place in the 1980s.
And so Pendergast has no-- He
might have a radio, but he has
no cell phone.
If he wants to call somebody,
he's got to go to find a
payphone or whatever.
And so we've had a lot of fun
going back and reimagining or
reacquainting ourselves with
the technology of the 80s,
and that's been fun.
>> There are little time capsules,
every last one of them,
I love rereading.
>> Douglas Preston: Yeah.
And it's funny, it doesn't seem
like 1980 was so long ago, but--
We are old.
>> Lincoln Child: We
were using fax machines,
you know, to communicate 
back then.
But to address your question,
I used to be a programmer
and one of my many lives, and,
you know, I've kept up with
the discipline and we often get
emails saying this is wrong.
You know, you don't
have this dot here.
And I said it wasn't wrong
when I wrote it, you know.
But I wrote a book, a scene
in our-- the book is coming out
with Corrie Swanson next,
where she uses AI to track down,
you know, to help narrow
the series of suspects.
And so I did a lot of research
and I said, oh, let's use this
brand new thing that Microsoft
is coming out with in like
two years called Copilot,
you know, and she will--
And I introduced it all and I
made up a special corporate version
militarized for the FBI,
you know, and then in the
end, I had to take it all out
because AI suddenly became the
best thing since sliced bread.
And now Copilot is
already available.
So, I had to rip that
out and changed it.
So, there are problems involved,
but not necessarily the kind
that a reader might consider.
>> Yeah, no, I appreciate it guys.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
Anybody else?
All right. Well, I think we have time
for one more question and I'll ask it.
You just mentioned that
there's a TV show coming out.
Is that right about
"Cabinet of Curiosities"?
>> Douglas Preston: That's right.
You know, the movie "Relic",
the "Relic" came out in 1997
and Paramount bought the rights.
We didn't really realize it.
We couldn't wait 
to get the check.
So we signed the contract that
we shouldn't have signed, but
they locked up forever.
All the characters in "Relic"
forever, including Pendergast.
Even though Pendergast
wasn't in the movie, they still
locked up his character.
So for the last 35,
30 years, Pendergast--
Paramount has refused to do
anything with Pendergast, and
no one else can do anything with
that character because Paramount
has the film and television rights.
So finally they came to us and
they said, oh, we want to do a
television series based on
Pendergast, starting with
"Cabinet of Curiosities."
And we spoke to the writer, and
I think they really understand
that changing the character
is not going to happen.
You know, our readers are
really want to see Pendergast as
presented in the
books on television.
No changes.
So they're working on it.
And we've talked to the
writer and he's really seems
like a smart guy and funny
and has a good record.
So we have high hopes.
>> Mimi Montgomery: That's 
exciting. Do you have any idea
when it will come out or who
will be in it or anything or?
>> Douglas Preston:
No, we don't.
I don't even think
we've been paid yet.
[Laughter]
We just signed this contract.
So, you know.
>> Lincoln Child: I'm tempted to
say when hell freezes over, but
I think we've had our hearts broken
many times in the last 20 years
and with, you know,
film projects or TV projects.
But this seems like this time
it's the real thing and there's
real momentum behind it.
And so, we're really hopeful
that this is going to be
the time we get the boutique
series, and Pendergast
gets the audience that we,
anyway, feel that he deserves.
>> Mimi Montgomery: I'm excited.
All right, one last question.
If there are any aspiring
thriller writers in the room,
what is your advice to them?
>> Douglas Preston: Well,
I have a couple of things.
First of all, read every day.
Second, write every day.
You know, writing is not
like any-- Writing is a lot like
playing the violin.
If you want to go to Carnegie Hall,
you got to practice every day,
not five days a week,
don't take two weeks off.
You practice every day.
You write every day.
That's really important.
And the third thing is to
explain to your family that
you have a sacred hour, every
day you're going to write, and
you are not to be interrupted
because people, you know,
if you're a doctor, they don't
show up in the operating room.
Oh, I can't find the,
you know, the phone.
Where did I leave my phone?
You know, but they do that if
you're writing, they think, oh,
they're just writing.
I can interrupt them.
You've got to explain to your
loved ones that you have this
sacred hour of writing
every day, and you're not to be
interrupted. So those three
things. Write every day,
read every day, and
block off that sacred hour.
And I think that's
my advice anyway.
>> Lincoln Child: 
I'll add to that.
I would add, write about what
you know, a little bit at least.
My grandmother, who was
a writer, always told me that,
you don't have to know it well, but
at least write it so it's believable.
Write a story that you would
like to read yourself.
You know, take a 
favorite author.
Don't plagiarize or copy them.
But what is it about their
style that you like?
You know, so writing should
be something that's fun,
not something that 
you have to do.
And I would just change Doug's
sacred hours slightly, which is
you have one hour to yourself
that cannot be interrupted
unless your dungeon group for
World of Warcraft comes up and
you have to go online.
[Laughter]
>> Douglas Preston: All right.
>> Mimi Montgomery: Seems like
a really good place to leave it.
[Laughing]
Thank you so much.
>> Douglas Preston: Thank you.
>> Mimi Montgomery:
Give it up for them.
[Applause]
[Music]